JV Basketball

I received my 7D on Tuesday and shot my 1st high school basketball game Tuesday night. I only had time to charge the battery and change the necessary settings (AI Servo, AF, Continuous shooting, etc) before heading off to the game. I shot the game with a 70-200 f/2.8 L IS. I shot anywhere from 3200-5000 ISO in TV mode because I wanted to keep a 1/500 ss. In PP I only cropped and ran through noiseware. When I look at the pics some of them look soft and I am not sure why.

C&C welcome and appreciated.

#1

What I learned last year is.. basketball shots around the rim (if not all basketball) should be shot (or cropped if not shot?) portrait style because of the vertical aspect of the game. I think it would help if they were all portrait to not be cutting off players at the ankles.. but I wont' see basketball until Monday myself and I know i'll be rusty #2 I'd crop out player #25 since he's not doing anything important to the layup.

1 and 4 do seem a little soft.. but on #4 it's kind of easier to figure out that with all the arms waving at the passer the focus might have been lost a little? It's (#4) still my favorite of them all .. showing the big guy being doubled by guys 3 heads shorter!

not bad but here are some things to look at...

1. Cutting off limbs is a huge "no no". try not to do that as much as possible.
2. Exposure looks good but the colors are a little droll, just a personal preference however.

The softness is probably a combination of several things. Even 1/500 is not enough to stop rapid motion. You are also shooting subjects that are rapidly moving both horizontally and vertically in a dark environment using a shallow DOF with limited contrast on their uniforms using a camera that is not necessarily known for its AF speed and responsiveness. You also have people moving through the AF point as well as the behind the camera caused errors.

The behind the camera caused errors are my biggest problem.

Basketball can be a challenge so don't get discouraged if you have some soft images. If they are all soft, that is a problem. If it's just some of them, it is just part of the fun of shooting in cave-like conditions.

NR can really 'soften' the overall look of the shots, from my experience.

IIRC, shooting in TV mode means the camera is choosing the f/n? Some of your shots have longer DOF than I see from my 70-200 2.8. You might have been able to see shutter speed beyond 1/500 and maybe even lower ISO had you shot manual at 2.8. Not sure, but that's another strategy to work on for your next outing.

The shots appear to be pretty well focused. Like others said, 1/500 if the low limit for sharp basketball shots. And that's when everything else aligns perfectly for you. My go-to lens for basketball has been the 85mm f/1.8 opened up to 2.0. This usually allows for 1/640 on the shutter at around 1600 ISO. Still noisy, but sharper and better lit than what you experienced this time around.

Overall, not bad. Going to be shooting with a 7D soon as well. We can compare shots!

dave

Thank you all for your help. I will be able to give some of this a try since we are in the middle of a tournament that started today. I am finding it a little tricky but I'm enjoying the adventure of it.

This may be a strange question, but what does DOF mean?

He's talking about definition of focus..

Because he shot these in Tv mode the aperture/DOF changes with each shot if I'm not mistaken?? Have never used Tv mode but I assume that's what it does?

I think you'd be better off in Manual.. F2.8 and setting your SS and ISO to get what you want and stick with that since you have the capability with the much better camera than the XS you were use to. I'll learn from responses to my thoughts also!

Just from what I saw on your Flickr I can't imagine that you couldn't get at least 1/800 SS or maybe more at F2.8

That makes sense. I will definately shoot tomorrows game in manual and see what I end up with.

Thanks

Hockey overrides most other schedules as far as stuff I shoot to put on my website (based on website traffic hockey's been more desirable) .. but actually shooting basketball games on Monday and Tuesday to knock off the rust..